[UPDATE – Adobe stopped selling CS6 entirely – here’s why… This means the CS products are no longer being made by the company, nor legitimately for sale through any channel in any country, from any vendor or reseller.]

Some folks think it might be a good idea to try to save a few bucks and buy Adobe software off of eBay, Craigslist, Amazon Marketplace, or from any vendor or seller who is unfamiliar.  It could be Creative Cloud, CS6, Photoshop, Lightroom, Acrobat, Elements, or any other title – in a retail, student, full or upgrade version… or sometimes it’s the “OEM” scam, or the plausible-sounding “extra” volume/enterprise license swindle.

But it’s actually not a very good idea at all.  Why?

The first problem is that Adobe does not recognize these venues as valid or authorized resellers, they are fully disregarded and invalid. So as a result, Adobe will not officially recognize any of those buyers as actually owning their software. Yes, you read that right.

Meaning, you think you own the genuine article but effectively you don’t. You cannot provide an accepted proof of purchase – so you can’t formally prove you own the products. You may not be able to transfer the software to someone else, nor be able to get product support or upgrade to the next version, etc…  You also aren’t able to return the software to get your money back from Adobe like you normally can.

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Even years after it went up, a lot of people still don’t know about it.

We’re talking about the free online documentation for all Adobe software – a set of user manuals that can answer quite a few customer questions, and also be a great resource if you don’t use a product yet but want to find out more about it…

This exists in searchable and downloadable form for all major Adobe applications, including the Creative Cloud, Creative Suite, Lightroom, Acrobat, Photoshop Elements, etc. – for all recent releases on both Windows and macOS.

For example, every so often we receive a question on how to save back to earlier versions from InDesign CC or CS6… Fortunately, this is answered in the “Saving Documents” section in InDesign’s online manual. (And for all the cases like these, we also put together a special roadmap for CC file compatibility.)

Related: Do you believe any of these? The 10 Most Common Myths About Creative Cloud

Each Adobe reference below can be downloaded as a complete offline ebook if you want (more about this below)… These books are substantial – the latest “Photoshop Help & Tutorials” hand­book is over 900 pages alone!

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Let’s face it, Adobe’s traditional product prices have seemed expensive over the years, espe­cially if you’re on a student’s budget. The last perpetual version available, Creative Suite 6 from 2012, historically had full prices ranging from $399 for Dream­weaver through $999 for Photoshop Extended and on up to $2,599 upfront for the Master Collection suite, which contained all CS6 applications. As cool and powerful as this software was, it’s hard to afford when you’re in school – even after the student/teacher discount.

Adobe eventually stopped selling CS6, as the version reached EOL and end of support – but fortunately the company still offers deep discounts for education customers on the newer CC release. A few years ago, in fact, they increased the discount on Creative Cloud to up to 70% off the regular prices. And while there are a lot of misconceptions about CC, the main products like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc., still download and run on your desktop as normal.

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A reader asked about a message he received from Adobe about a change in CC subscrip­tion pricing in North America. Per the company’s email, some membership costs will be rising 5-6% for individuals in the US, Canada and Mexico – the first increase since Creative Cloud came out in 2012. Here is an excerpt from the notice Adobe sent about the pricing adjustment in these countries:

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Now that the Adobe CC release has become ubiquitous with over 12 million paid customers, more folks are asking us whether the new versions of the tools in the Creative Cloud can read or save older data/document/project file formats like CS6, CS5.5, CS5, CS4 & CS3…

In fact, since Adobe’s flagship creative toolset CC 2018 is now six major releases past CS6 from 2012 (which they no longer sell), file version compatibility can some­times be an important decision point in moving forward.

In the past, new Adobe product versions have often brought different or expanded file formats to support significant new features – and customers want to know if their existing projects will easily carry forward with them when they upgrade, or if they will be able to save back to older formats for coworkers or clients who may still be running an earlier revision of the programs…

OK then, here’s how it works. Generally, your new CC tools will be able to open and use any and all earlier CS project and data files – including CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.5, and CS6 files – with no problem or loss of information. In other words, all Adobe software is able to read or import file formats from previous versions of the same program – and it should happen seam­lessly and automatically. The only exception to this is Premiere Pro, where it’s best to open/edit projects in the same versions that created them.

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Adobe Acrobat DC 2018 is now shipping! If you hadn’t already known, “DC” stands for Document Cloud, which is Adobe’s set of integrated online services to help people and businesses better manage critical documents. At the heart of Document Cloud is Acrobat DC – the industry standard for creating, sharing and editing PDFs – which was completely redesigned for the initial DC 2015 milestone release three years ago. For more information, see: What Is the Document Cloud?

Acrobat continues as a desktop product in both Pro or Standard editions, and is available either via subscription or with a perpetual (one-off) license. Read more…

Adobe Muse is a modern website builder that enables you to create gorgeous HTML5 sites that dynamically scale to any device – and Muse allows you to do this without writing any code. Muse is included for all Complete Creative Cloud (“All Apps”) members, as well as available via a Single-App Subscription. So with many millions of people already receiving Muse with their CC purchases, there’s a broad audience for training materials on how to get going with this helpful program…

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We’ve previously covered here how to transfer Adobe software products (like Creative Cloud, CS6, Photoshop, Lightroom, Elements, or Acrobat) between two computers, including from PC to Mac or vice versa. In this article we’re going to focus on transferring the actual legal license from one person or company to another, like transferring the title to a car or home between two people.

Moving the software physically is mostly a technical task, but doesn’t cover what happens if the recipient has problems, needs customer support or updates, wants to be registered with Adobe, and be recognized as the new rightful owner and user of the tools. To address those needs, you can follow the transfer process described below to “unregister” the program from the old owner and re-register for the new one.

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Knowing how to make a good selection is one of the most important things you can learn to do in Photoshop. With accurate selections and masks, you can completely control the placement and movement of all the elements of your image, or copy an object from one photo to another.

But making good selections and masks can also be one of the most time-consuming processes in Photoshop. And we take for granted what our eyes can easily see, yet a program cannot recognize without our involvement. But check out this sneak peek video of a new feature in Photoshop CC that will give you a head start in this regard:

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Time-lapse photography videos never go out of style…  Here is one of our all-time favorites from Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sorgjerd – incredibly beautiful and perfect for the clear, dark nights of the season (watch full-screen):

Prior to the extensive video editing tools first introduced in CS6, Photoshop wasn’t normally known for its video capabilities – but in fact it’s always been possible to take a series of still photo­graphs (manipulated as desired) and then quickly create your own timelapse video using Photoshop Extended…

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